Synchronicity
by vendetta543
Summary: Taking a once in a lifetime chance, Ichika accepts a scholarship to go to the prestigious St. Lucia Academy in France. Things aren't as simple as they appear, however. Things are more complicated than they appear, and it involves the mysterious and enigmatic Charles and the sweet and simple Charlotte.
1. To France

**New story:) This is Charlotte's separate story for Daydreams. Just an intro for now, but more will come later.**

* * *

Narita International airport buzzed with life, people shuffling to and fro to their destinations. The gates were filled with people, ranging from businessmen in suits to teenagers in vacation wear. In the center of all this writhing chaos, there was a particular young man of interest.

His hair was black, cropped and ended just above his neckline. He looked to be about 15 years of age, give or take, and wore a casual long sleeved black shirt and light colored jeans with black sneakers.

Currently, he was on the phone with someone, and by the looks of it, it wasn't a very pleasant conversation.

"Yes, Chifuyu-nee, I'm sure." His voice sounded tired, irate. Maybe it had something to do with the 75 minute bus trip he had to take just to get here. He never cursed the fact that Odaiba had no airport till now. Times like this he wished he had an IS like his sister.

That was impossible, of course. The IS were only usable by females, and he was far from being female, uncanny family resemblance or not.

"Ichika, it's not too late to turn back now. We can probably still enroll you in a school nearby." A woman's voice replied form the phone.

By the way they talked, it was probable that they were siblings.

"Look, we talked about this; the cooking scholarship I got can help me get a job easier and saves us 3 years worth of tuition fees. If I'm lucky, then I can get a college scholarship too." He argued, trying to stop the annoyed tone from leaking out.

He was honestly surprised when the teacher called him and told him he got a scholarship to a foreign country. He'd spent months poring over books, trying to grasp at least the basics the language had. He wasn't very smart, but he could do a lot when he tried.

"...If you're sure..." The voice sounded sad, very uncharacteristic of her. Ichika felt like someone had just sucker punched him when he heard that.

He was even more surprised about Chifuyu's reaction, which was completely different from what he thought it would be like. He expected indifference, or at the very least some relief that he wasn't dropping out of high school to get a job like he wanted to a few months ago.

"Look, it won't be all bad. I'll be back for Christmas and the Holidays, don't worry. I won't be gone long" He tried to re-assure her.

"Yeah...I know." She didn't sound sure of herself, but he'd already made his choice about this long ago.

She'd acted markedly different the past few weeks. When he told her about it a few months ago, she assumed it was just exaggeration on his part. As the months closed in, she became more and more worried about it.

Ever since he scheduled his flight a few weeks ago, she'd been adamant in trying to stop him from going. She didn't say it, but he knew she was worried about him ever since that kidnapping incident a few years ago. Her little brother telling her he was leaving to go to a foreign country alone obviously raised warning bells to her.

Still, Ichika was adamant in going, and she couldn't refuse his wishes.

"*Sigh* Alright, I'll stop bothering you about it." Ichika did a small mental cheer in his head after he heard that, "But you better be careful while you're over there. I won't be there to save you this time."

Ichika's grip on the phone tightened slightly when he heard her last reminder. There was of course another reason he wanted to go on this scholarship in a foreign country.

He didn't want to be a burden to his older sister anymore.

Though she tried to hide it, he always knew she wasn't as tough and invulnerable as she tried to be. Their parents left them at a young age, but Ichika was just 5 at the time, barely even aware of what happened. Hell, he didn't even remember their faces. All he remembered were voices and fragmented sentences.

Chifuyu, though, was 14 at the time, barely into her teens. The responsibility of taking care of her only remaining family must've been a strain on her. No relatives came to help them, no other family to try and ease the burden. She had to shoulder everything by herself.

Things did change when the IS came. His sister's old friend, Tabane Shinonono, created the Infinite Stratos. Originally mocked for being nothing but a glorified spacesuit, the White Knight incident changed everything. Now tourneys were held every three years and there was even a specialized school for it.

His sister's luck also changed. From being an ordinary teen, she became the representative of Japan. She won tournaments and became famous all throughout the world for her skill and grace, even getting the nickname 'Brunhilde' for her efforts. It was a once in a lifetime chance.

A chance she lost when he got kidnapped.

She had to give up everything to ensure her brother's protection: Her title, her match, and even her position as a national representative for Japan. She said it wasn't his fault, and that he couldn't have done anything about it, but those words ringed hollow when she still refused to continue for fear of his safety. This made one thing obvious:

He was the only thing holding her back.

Sure, this wasn't the best thing he could've hoped for. Going to a foreign country with nothing but the clothes on his back and funding from some academy wasn't the first things on his bucket list, but it did give him that chance.

He was also going to be separated from his friends if he did this.

Dan, who had been there since middle school and the one who always had his back in whatever he did. A bit perverted, especially when it came to older women, but a stand up guy who he could always count on.

Rin, the cute transfer student who he helped with her bullying problem with the assistance of his friend Dan. Blunt and to the point, she always said what was on her mind and how she felt on things. He did have a crush on her before, but he didn't think he had a chance with her o he gave it up.

Ran, Dan's younger sister. He didn't know much about her, and she seemed hesitant to be casual with him, what with going to change her clothes every time he came over. Still a good friend and felt like his own little sister at times.

And finally, Houki. She had only recently come back, what with going on witness protection to prevent her being used as bait for her older sister. Truth be told, he was somewhat starstruck when he first saw her. Who would've thought she'd grow up to be such a beauty?

Sadly, he didn't get to spend much time with her, what with being busy for the upcoming transfer.

On a side note, she and Rin seemed to argue a lot about him. Whenever he asked what they were arguing about, they'd both go red and tell him to mind his own business. Sheesh, they could at least not yell at him.

Unfortunately, all 4 of them had school today (Friday). He would have liked to say goodbye in person, but he couldn't have it all.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. I promise I won't get kidnapped by rabid psycho's or corrupt executives or anything like that." He could feel his sister's glare even through the phone. Okay, bad joke. Probably shouldn't have said that.

"Ichika, I'm serious here." He placed the placed the phone away from his ear and cautiously kept distance from it, "If you get yourself kidnapped again, I'm going to come get you and you'll **wish **you were still kidnapped. Am I making myself clear?"

Ah, there was the old Chifuyu he knew, loved, and nearly pissed his pants in fear of. For a second there he was getting worried she was going to become one of those crazy cat ladies he heard Dan talk about a lot.

"Yeah, I promise I'll be careful. Listen, you don't have to worr-"

Unfortunately, the conversation couldn't continue before an announcement blared out.

"**To all passengers taking the 8:30 pm flight, please board the plane now. We shall be leaving soon."**

Ichika cursed silently at the bad timing, "Chifuyu-nee, I have to go. I'll call you back when I'm there!" Of course he'd probably get there by early morning and he'd be too tired to do much of anything.

"Ichika, be careful-"

***Click***

Ichika placed his cellphone at his small bag before picking up his suitcase before making his way to the bridging area, squeezing past the crowd of people in his way. He wished he scheduled an early morning flight now.

International travel had increased in frequency ever since the tech advancement from the IS. Considering the fact that Holographic messages and displays were among the first things to become widespread, this wasn't a surprise. Even regular airplanes could travel faster at the cost of less fuel.

Unfortunately for him, this meant more people crowding around in places like this.

A lot of people.

"Excuse me, excuse me, pardon me. Sorry ma'am, didn't mean to touch you there! Woah, watch it!"

After a few more minutes of this, he finally managed to get past the crowd and got on his seat of the plane. Other passengers on the plane looked to be students as well, which he didn't find odd. International education also became more popular, after all.

"**Thank you for choosing Narita International airlines. The flight to Paris, France will depart in ten minutes. Please make sure to put on your seatbelts and follow the safety guidelines. Once again, thank you for choosing Narita International airlines."**

Having nothing else to do, he decided to do some last minute check ups.

"Hmm, everything's here. Uniform's here, all the books I need are here, and...4 messages?" He picked up his cellphone and clicked through it, "Dan, Houki, Rin, and Ran? When did they send these?"

Well, no sense in leaving them unread.

"Ichika, good luck in France. Not gonna be there to watch your back, so watch your ass out there, you hear me? Your three admirers would kill me if anything happened o you. Makes no sense, but that's what being friends with you is like sometimes.

P.S: If you make and female friends looking for a boyfriend, you know who to call;)"

Ah, good old Dan. Some things would never change. Besides, he doubted he'd find anyone like that. This year was going to be all about study, study, study.

"Ichika, you better not get any idea's while you're out there! You told us you were going there to study, not flirt with girls, right! I don't know what Dan told you, but you should focus on your studies and not getting into relationships, alright!

Better see you back here by the holidays. I'll be better at cooking by then."

Rin was just as blunt as ever, even when she's was just sending a text. The last part did remind him about that promise she made with him. He was going to look forward to the Next Holidays.

"Ichika-san, please don't forget about us. You were supposed to go to my school festival, remember? If you get a holiday, make sure to come back if you can.

We'll miss you."

Huh, even Ran was sending him a message. That was good considering she seemed so stiff whenever they talked.

"Ichika, come back soon."

Houki's message. No words of encouragement, no wishing him luck, just a small reminder to tell him to return. Most people would look at this as being cold or uncaring, but Ichika just smiled in response. For the cold and aloof Houki, who he hadn't seen in nearly 6 years, this was pretty much tanamount to a hug and a kiss.

Sending them all a quick reply, he pocketed the phone and leaned back. This was it, he was going to start a new life, at least for the next three years. His friends and only family had said their farewells (albeit not in person) and there was nothing holding him back.

"France, here I come!"

* * *

**Alright, that's it. Next chapter's the arrival in France, first day of school, and meeting of the main couple. Hopefully it'll be longer than this chapter.**


	2. Welcome to Saint Lucia

**Next chapter of Synchronicity. Gonna say some things first:**

**1. Ichika will have guy friends here. He's not in ISA, so the best I can do is make the school 9/10 females due to the priority shift. Hell, for all purposes, Charles counts as a dude as far as he knows. Now, are they going to be main characters? Nope. How about spotlight stealers? Nuh-uh. They're mostly there for exposition since Ichika's a newbie to both the school and the dealings. In some cases, they're the expositionee instead of the expositioner.**

**This story's about Ichika and Charlotte, so the plot movement will be solely based on them. They might have a role or two to play later, but it'll be relatively minor and it'll be related to the current Ichika x Charlotte deal. Whether they count as OC's or not will depend on whether you can recognize them.**

**Basically like ****Dan**** Gotanda, but with more talks.**

**2. Charlotte will have friends too. No OC's there, so you'll recognize who they are. This is different from the canon story, so there will be changes to Charlotte's past. Notably, being that Mrs Dunoa is still alive and kicking here...so far. That can change easy enough.**

**Each of them will only have 3 friends each, so I'm not gonna go overboard and give them an entire mosh pit of peers. They're teens in school, so there's no way they can go without talking to anyone unless they're ultra anti-social. Ichika's nothing if not friendly and sociable while Charlotte's charismatic enough to befriend Ice Queen Laura, so loner is not an option.**

**3. The IS is in the story, just not in the way canon handles it. The IS are practically superweapons, so there'll be no pulling them out whenever one of the girls decide to be homicidal. Ichika's place as the only male pilot will be part of the plot as well.**

**This chapter's mostly exposition and introduction. Next chapter is when character introductions start taking precedence.**

**Note: You don't need to get the references to who the character's are. I only make minor if any reference at all to their source media.**

* * *

Well, here he was. He had boarded the plane that would take him to a foreign country he knew nothing about, chasing after some supposed scholarship that he wasn't even sure was legitimate. He had his doubts, after all. Why would he be picked for a cooking scholarship? He wasn't the best student (He actually just barely passed math), nor was he the most studious. His cooking was average too, though he did have his pride on it.

Yeah, he didn't share with his big sister his thoughts on it. She was worried enough as it is with teaching at IS academy (A job he only recently figured out she had). She had hidden her work from him for some deep and mysterious reason or another. She probably thought he would never figure it out. In truth, he always had his suspicions on it, what with the constant voicemails they got in the house from teenage girls, but he never really figured it out till her assistant homeroom teacher/friend /kouhai/whatever visited their house to get the summer class plan.

He had to admit, he felt slightly hurt. Maybe she did it just to protect him (from what?), but maybe she did it because she didn't trust him with that information. He was the one who was stupid enough to get kidnapped on the day of his sister's championship match. Worse of all, he didn't remember a single detail about said kidnappers. Not even their mask colours or voices.

They'd been slightly more distant since that day. Their love for each other didn't change; in fact, it was actually stronger than before. But she always kept him at arm's reach. When he would ask her about where she was going or what her plans were, she would make it sound as vague as possible to an almost hair-splitting degree. There were times he actually did pull his hair out in frustration (She didn't notice that either).

Anybody would get irritated if they always got "Out. In a few days or weeks. Do some business. Job's a regular one. Going with work friends." or any other such excuse whenever they asked a question. He wasn't 10 years old anymore, those excuses weren't going to work forever. She used the same excuses whenever he woke up to see her leaving the house when he was still a kid. Turns out she worked at early morning to earn enough money for the both of them.

A part of him didn't want to admit it, but there was another reason he chose to follow this risky scholarship idea: He wanted to get away from her for a while.

He didn't hate her, and he'd kick anyone's ass that said otherwise, but they needed their space. The way things were going, she needed a break from constantly having to worry about him. She had enough trouble on her mind with her job and he didn't need to start adding even more of them. She know this either, but some of her student's were also calling him for information about her. He had to change his cellphone number 3 times before they stopped.

Back to the present: It's been half an hour since the start of the flight and all of his electronics were off. His friends would've been out of school by now and he would've started calling almost immediately if not for the restriction. He didn't even know what time it would be for them when he landed. Would it be daytime for them when it was late night for him? He hoped not. That would make keeping constant contact hard.

As he was thinking about his predicament, his seatmate decided to start a conversation.

"Hey, how's it going?" He started cheerfully.

Ichika was knocked out of his reverie at the sound and turned to his left. He was sitting in a window seat on the right side of the plane. Each row of seats consisted of only three seats side by side, so he had a total of two seatmates sitting on his left. There was a decent distance between the seats so they weren't elbow to elbow, a small luxury of the most recent planes nowadays.

Technological renaissance and all that.

Turning to the left, he took note of his features. He looked about his age, give or take a couple of years up, with black eyes. He was donned in a blue cap, which he wore backwards, exposing his face and his hair was near bald, looked recently shaven. Coupled with the small goatee covered his chin, he looked like a classical delinquent you'd find skipping class or flirting with girls. The black tank top and loose blue jeans didn't really help his image. He was also Japanese, a fact which he took some small comfort in.

"Eh, going to a foreign country by myself on a scholarship and I'm barely into high school. What's not to love?" He replied with equal mirth.

If Ichika didn't know any better, he would've judged him as a punk and stop talking. But, he was taught never to judge by appearances and that actions always spoke louder than words. One look at Dan and he didn't think that the two of them would ever end up as friends, let alone best friends. Life worked in mysterious ways sometimes.

Cap-head threw his head back and laughed, "Hahahaha, Yeah, I hear ya," He stuck his hand out, "Junpei Iori, nice to meet ya." He introduced himself with a goofy grin on his face.

Ichika nodded and took the offered hand gratefully. He looked like a student. A delinquent student maybe, but a student nonetheless. This didn't really come as a surprise to him.

When the IS cores were distributed all over the world, global relations over the past ten years had increased. Frequent meets to discuss new IS research and to compare notes. Basically, the held 'who's got a bigger gun' every time someone made a supposed breakthrough. This had the side effect of the general populace following their example and taking trips to foreign country's for experience.

More specifically, the idea of studying in foreign lands started to appeal more to students and families with kids. The advancements in technology made education and travel more accessible to all, so everyone had ideas on foreign studies now.

"Ichika Orimura." He introduced himself in return.

Junpei looked at him with a raised eyebrow for a couple of seconds before dropping it and turning back to his usual grin. The surname sounded familiar, but...eh. He never paid attention to the news or current events that much. Life was meant to be enjoyed with a nice and easygoing outlook. Besides, someone with the same surname as him probably just won the lottery or something. Wasn't important anyhow.

He did a sweep of his hand across the room, "Boring flight, huh? I can't believe we have to go through like 8 hours of this." He complained, clicking his tongue in disapproval.

"Mmm, it's not so bad," Ichika leaned back in his seat, "At least it's nice and quiet. Can't tell you how crowded the airport was getting here. I had to practically yell at my phone just to talk to my sister and say goodbye."

"Eh, I prefer a little noise myself. Helps me relax, you know? Reminds me that there are other people around and no one's going to turn to coffins or blood's going to start seeping out of the wall.."

Ichika looked at him confusedly, "Coffins? Blood? What are you talking about?" Ichika asked. Was that a slang for zombies or something? Or maybe it was a derogatory term for those who listened to a specific brand of music? He heard similar terms back in his old school. The blood thing was what confused him the most. Last he checked, blood didn't come out of walls, and there wasn't any slang he heard about that before.

"O-Oh, uh...nevermind. Just saying random shit." Junpei sat up straight in his seat with a look of panic. He would be 'executed' if he said any more. Details need not be elaborated upon.

"Uh-huh..." Ichika nodded slowly. Better not to press the topic and make things awkward. He knew when to stop.

"A-Anyway!" He started, changing the subject, "You said you were going to a scholarship, right?" Ichika nodded and he grinned, "Me and my friend are going to study abroad too. It's really popular nowadays," He noted.

"A friend? You mean you're not alone?" Ichika asked.

"Oh yeah," He grinned and patted the person next to him, eliciting an annoyed grunt in response, "Lemme introduce you to Minato Arisato, emo extraordinaire!" His grin widened when Minato swatted his away in annoyance. Getting a reaction out of him was rare.

Minato could be described as Junpei's opposite. His hair was long and blue, covering his silvery right eye from view. In contrast to Junpei's perpetual grin, Minato had a blank look on his face and looked slightly sleepy, most likely from jet lag. Even their clothes were different, with him wearing a long sleeved white shirt and tight black jeans in contrast to Junpei's more loose and comfortable ensemble.

And, though Ichika wouldn't say it out loud, he did kinda think Junpei had a point in calling the guy emo.

"Minato Arisato...nice to meet you..." He struck his hand out lazily, which Ichika accepted with a little hesitation. His voice sounded off, like he had to force himself to talk those six words.

"Ah...nice to meet you too..."

Minato nodded before putting a pair of headphones and leaning back on his seat again. As Junpei would later explain to him, he wasn't the talkative type. He only seemed to respond when he called him emo.

"Hey bud, anybody waiting for you back home?" Junpei laughed when Ichika's expression locked up slightly, "Oh, got a girlfriend waitin for you or somethin? Better make sure to keep her close then, man. I hear a lot of stories about girls cheatin on their guy when they leave to study in some far off school. I'm tellin ya, I know these things..." Junpei said in a self important manner.

Him? With a girlfriend? Yeah, that'll be the day. He wasn't really the girls type, not to mention any girls would probably go for his sister rather than him any day. She had that effect on people where any guy, girl, animal, or even a snake in one case, would instantly fall for her without her even trying. Besides, the only girls he hung out with on a regular basis were Houki, Rin, and Ran. And he doubted any of them had feelings for him.

If they did, he would know. He was smart when it came to these things. A real expert on emotion.

"...Reading romantic comedy manga doesn't make you an expert on things like this..." Minato commented in a deadpan tone.

"H-Hey man, don't say stuff like that! You're messing up my reputation to the new guy." The bluenette didn't reply and closed his eyes. He muttered something under his breath that vaguely sounded like "Stupei" and said nothing more.

"So...the two of you are studying abroad too?" Ichika questioned his new cap wearing...I guess you could call him a friend. It was either that or try and get a response from Quiet McSilentpants over there, and Ichika didn't want another awkward incident so close after the last talk at the airport with Chifuyu.

"Huh?" Junpei looked confused before he started nodding rapidly, "Oh yeah, me and him are going to go on some kind of exchange student program sponsored by a friend of ours. It's in Germany...I think."

A friend of theirs? They must've been connected. Well, it was really none of his business. Before that, why would he be on a flight heading for France if he was going to Germany? If he took the wrong flight and accidentally dragged his friend along with him, then he'd be...well, he would be an idiot. He never judged by appearances, but the slacker title may be correct in this case.

"You think? You mean you don't know?" Ichika asked disbelievingly, "And why are you on this plane? It's heading for France, not Germany." He sounded worried.

"W-Well, it's not my fault!" He protested, "Senpai was the one who said we should take this trip as a favour for her or something and that we'd take a second flight in France," He adjusted his hat and took it off his head, "Man, I'm just lucky Minato was willing to go with me. Everybody else was too busy or already got into different schools."

Okay, so he wasn't all there. No big deal, he'd had worst friends. Dan encouraging him to peek into the girls side of the Onsen (Japanese hot springs) came to mind. He would admit that he didn't regret what he had seen, but the bruises Houki, Rin, and (surprisingly) Ran gave him made him swear to never do it again. No view was worth possibly losing his greatest treasure.

"Ah, that doesn't really matter." Junpei shrugged in a carefree manner, eliciting a mental facepalm from the dark haired teen, "Anyway, where are you goin? You said earlier that you were studyin in France, you know where?"

Ichika had to resist the urge to sarcastically reply with "Yeah, cause not everyone goes to a foreign country without checking where they're going". Instead, he chose a more polite way of speaking his thoughts.

"Yeah, name's Saint Lucia High School," He rummaged into his pocket and pulled out the slightly crumpled pamphlet, "It's a school in Paris, France that was made a few decades ago. According to this, it's some kind of school for the elite. No really, it says school for the elite right here," He pointed at the last line in the info paragraph, "Guess they're proud of themselves or something."

Junpei, however, wasn't listening. The minute heard Saint Lucia, his jaw dropped and his mind blanked out. He'd done his research on the place in his free time (Message boards are surprisingly accurate). The entire place was set up: Latest facilities, best conditions, and even came with instant recommendations to the best colleges internationally if you pass. In short terms, it was possibly one of the most elite of the elite school's in France. No, the world. But that wasn't the most important part. No, it was something else:

The school population was 95% hot girls!

The only place that could beat it in raw awesomeness would be some place called IS academy back in Japan. Thing is, the entire place was an all girls school, so no chance of a guy going there at all.

There was some kind of convoluted reason for it or whatever. He heard something about a robot that only females could use or whatever, but he didn't really care about that. All he knew was that his new friend somehow had access to possibly the second best school in terms of babe percentage, and he didn't even realize it!

"Hey, you're going to Saint Lucia!" Junpei stood up, grabbing the suddenly stunned Ichika by the shoulders, "Dude, do you know how fuckin lucky you are right now! Saint Lucia's babe heaven, dude! I'd kill to get in there! How the hell did you get in!"

"H-Huh? What are you talking about?" Ichika backed away in confusion.

"Dude, that place is where all the high society chicks are! Guys would kill to be in your place and you act like it's no big deal! Did you see how big that campus is? It's like a fuckin castle! Big-wigs from all over the world send their kids to go there! Shit man, how the hell-"

*Crack*

The crack resounded over the entire cabin area. Ichika flinched at the sound; it sounded like the cracking of a skull slowly and painfully. Evidently, it was Junpei's skull that had cracked since he slumped back into his seat, mouth open and drooling with a weird grin on his face. His nose was also bleeding, but he really doubted it was because of the injury.

"Sorry about that..." Minato flinched and shook his fists, which gave a resounding crack in response "...He can get really...obsessed with things he's interested in..." He gave another flinch as he felt a knuckle snap back, "Ah...I forgot how hard his head is. Or maybe I'm just weaker than before."

Ichika looked at the unconscious Junpei: He didn't seem to be injured and the smile on his face made it seem unlikely that he was dying. Still, couldn't be too careful, "Uh...is he gonna be alright?" He carefully asked the not-emo bluenette. He really didn't want to see what would happen if the other boy thought he needed a tap on the head too.

Minato nodded, "He should be fine...if a little sore when he wakes up," He sat back down on his seat and cranked up the volume on his MP3, "Just be lucky no one heard him before he started yelling. I...don't want to see what would happen if you attract the attention of the entire cabin..." He smiled wryly.

True to form, no one in the entire cabin had even turned to look at the three of them, despite Junpei's near constant yelling from hearing his soon to be school's name. Speaking of which, what the heck was that about? He went absolutely crazy when he heard the name of the school. And what did he mean when he said that it was 'babe heaven'?

He never really did much research on the school. He spent much of the intervening months trying to at least get the basics of the French language and brushing up on the national etiquette. His knowledge on the school came from either the pamphlet that he got with the mail or what he read off of Wikipedia. He ignored any links to message boards since he didn't think they would have any worthwhile info.

As far as he knew, Saint Lucia was a school for the elite that catered to only the best...that's what was said on the pamphlet too.

The rest of the flight was quiet after that. Junpei was unconscious and he only managed to eke out a few words from his stoic companion before he gave up trying altogether. With his thoughts on the possibility's ahead, time flew by fast and, before he knew it, an attendant was already announcing that they were going to land soon.

He said his goodbye's to the two friends he made, albeit briefly. Well, more like he said goodbye to Minato, who gave a small wave of acknowledgement. Junpei was still unconscious and Minato carried him in a fireman's carry to get him out of the plane.

He wished them luck on wherever they were going. With any luck of his own, making friends would be just as easy as it was today.

Contrary to his expectations, it wasn't the cold darkness of night that greeted him but rather the brightness of early morning. Changing time zones was confusing and very painful for his thought processes. Would his friends be sleeping right now? He hadn't gotten any messages when he turned on his phone earlier.

"Alright, so where am I supposed to go now?" He slung his bag over his shoulders and looked at the pickup line. The letter said that someone would be taking him to the school and that he should look at someone wearing all white to guide him.

...Did they have to say that when the latest fashion was all white?

He wasn't exaggerating. The entire crowd at the fetching area was dressed in different variations of white ranging from dresses to jackets to a simple shirt and pants (which was also white). Didn't they think to update his message to be more specific? At least specify the type of clothing he/she would wear to narrow it down!

Stupid fashion season.

"Great, what am I going to do now?" He grumbled to himself and took a deep breath. He guessed he had no choice but to start looking through the crowd. Besides, how hard could it be?

* * *

He really shouldn't have said that.

He spent about half an hour circling the area, trying to ask people directions or questions using his extremely rusty French. Most people gave him the brush off or told him to look somewhere else while the others who did try to help ended up just confusing him even more since they tried to speak in broken Japanese to try and accommodate him.

Great, 30 minutes here and he was already hopelessly lost with nothing to go on. Maybe Chifuyu was right, maybe he should've just stayed back at home and ignored the too good to be true scholarship. You know what? It was probably a scam. He'd seen some TV shows where people thought they won a prize at the end and only to get told on live TV that it was all a joke. Was this what was happening here? Did he fall for something he was going to regret?

Not good, not good! He had to call Chifuyu back and ask for help right now. It might be embarrassing, but it wasn't like he had much choice now.

"Excuse me, are you Sr. Ichika Orimura?" A female voice from behind interrupted his hyperventilating.

Stopping his increasingly insane thoughts, he turned around slowly and tried to keep his expression neutral.

And thank whatever God that he did.

The woman who called him looked to be just past 20, with a glare that would send most men running for the hills crying for their mommy's. She wore a white formal uniform consisting of a white polo shirt and some white slacks coupled with (you guessed it) white boots. She was slightly taller than him, which only intensified the glare she gave him.

Not to say she wasn't pretty, though. Truth be told, the woman reminded him eerily of his older sister, down to the same exact crinkle in the eyebrow that came with the glare. Her face had the features of a mature woman, with soft pale skin and cherry colored lips. The only thing that detracted from her scary image was the somewhat long strawberry blonde hair that she had, and even then not by much.

"Uh...Y-Yes!" He straightened up and fished the letter out of his pocket quickly, "A-Are you Miss Farron?" He tried to keep his voice steady, even when it became increasingly harder the longer the woman stared at him.

"You're the new transfer student?" She gave him a quick once over as he rapidly nodded, "Mmm, sorry it took so long to find you. The school board's been so busy that they didn't notice it was White Season." She took a deep breath and her glare lightened, "I swear, those idiots wouldn't be able to find their ass if it wasn't handed to them on a silver platter." She muttered the last words to herself, but Ichika heard it anyway (Not that he was going to say anything).

Okay, he had to admit he didn't expect that. He was expecting lots of yelling, mostly pointed at his direction, for being late and how he couldn't follow even simple instructions while he tried in vain to defend himself. He wasn't expecting an apology and no yelling whatsoever, especially since the woman looked like she was glaring right at his soul.

"O-Oh, it's no problem..." He re-assured her.

She gave him a small smile (which he really didn't expect) and beckoned him to follow her to the transportation. He was told beforehand that he would be taken to the school in a limousine in the letter. How could he forget? Dan practically yelled at him about how lucky he was getting the royal treatment along with Houki and Rin telling him not to get a big head about it.

It was only after they stayed in the car for a few minutes that Ms. Farron initiated conversation.

"So I'm curious," She started, "How much do you exactly know about the Academy?" Ichika gave her a confused look, "I mean about things like resources, standing, population or anything." She clarified to the confused teen.

"I guess all that's written in here," He took out the pamphlet and offered it to her, which she politely accepted, "I mostly know about the history of the academy and some of its founding leaders. I don't really know much beyond that..." He finished lamely.

She looked at him for 5 seconds straight on before suddenly eliciting a small laugh, which could barely be heard, "This." She raised up the pamphlet, "Hasn't been updated since about 30 years ago. This thing's older than I am."

"...Huh?"

She sighed and tossed the pamphlet back at him, "Laymans terms: This thing is worthless. It's a giant waste of paper that talks about how important the school is without saying anything at all about how it works or what they need from their students." She crossed her left leg over her right and scowled, "I swear, this school's getting worse every year."

Okay, check another thing he wasn't expecting: A teacher who talked bad about the school she was teaching.

Seeing his uncomfortable expression, she realized she said too much and changed the subject, "Well, either way it's not much to go on. Listen, I'll give you some advice," She leaned in closer, "Be careful in that school. Don't let the title 'school for the most elite' fool you, they're just normal people in there, whether they like to show it or not."

Okay, why did he suddenly get a bad feeling? Damn it, the next three years were supposed to be full of studying and possibly making new friends, if he was lucky. Now he was already getting warnings to be careful barely an hour here.

No, he couldn't screw up here. He made his choice to leave both his friends and only remaining family behind for possibly three years. He couldn't afford to go back, not now. Crazy ramblings earlier notwithstanding, he was determined to do his best to stay here. If he was going back, then he'd have to be dragged kicking and screaming.

"Hey kid, you alright?" She gave him a concerned look.

"Yeah, I'm fine." He gave her a small smile in return, which gave her a small surprise.

She just shrugged and did her small smile, "Well, you better be kid," The car grinded to a halt and she opened the door, ushering him out.

What greeted Ichika on the other side was more than he expected. He'd seen some images of the school online at times, but they didn't do it any justice.

The path before him was made of yellow brick, which shined with a golden glow under the morning sun. It split into three paths (one going to the left, one going to the right, and one going straight forward), with a silver fountain at the center sprouting a clear fountain of water.

The center path led to the main campus, a giant building that would make castle's weep in terror at its size. He couldn't judge from here, but he could estimate that it had 20 floors at the very least. He could also see some...towers? Well, he didn't know what they were, but they certainly looked like towers. There were two them, each of which stood on the left and right side of the main campus. How or why they were there, he didn't know.

To the left was the dorm rooms, which, while not as big as the main campus, still towered over most contemporary buildings that he knew. The walls were painted a soothing color of light brown and everything pointed out to it being electric and upgraded with the latest tech. Modern and comfortable would be the phrase he would use to describe it.

The right one was even more crowded and filled. Other than a few smaller buildings he saw, there were two things which caught his attention: A straight tower with an octagon shaped plate at the top and a giant circle full of seats with a giant space in the center. If he could hazard a guess, the tower was a helipad and the giant circle was either a stadium or arena. Again, what purpose either would have on a school he didn't know.

The last thing of note were the (almost entirely female) students, of which many were staring at him. He chalked it up to the fact that he was still wearing casuals since he hadn't received his uniform yet.

Speaking of the uniform, the designs reminded him of his old school. The girls uniforms were all black, consisting of a long sleeved black school jacket with a white blouse and short skirt with white outlines at the edges. An different variety of ribbons sat on their chest, ranging from red to white to blue, adding to their unique feel. For leg wear, the knee length socks had a similar color scheme, with black coloring and white outlines at the top coupled with a pair of black loafers.

Oddly enough, he really couldn't see any guys walking around. There were certainly female students there, and even a few teachers (signified by the white uniform they wore), so where were the males? Last he checked, this place was a co-ed school.

Ms Farron, seeing his confused expression, just sighed and pushed him forward. He needed to shape else he get eaten alive.

"Welcome to Saint Lucia high school. Don't get yourself killed."

* * *

Ms. Farron ( What was her first name anyway? She never told him) gave him directions to his class and a map to the school before she quickly left (taking his bag with him), stating that she had to meet with the headmistress of the school about his enrollment and dorm room lodgings. Apparently, it still wasn't finished.

He also managed to ask her about his uniform before she left, but she only said that they still had to order it and it should be here soon. The teacher was told to allow him to wear his casuals for now and that he would be able to get his uniform soon.

As he walked forward, he vaguely took notice of the fact that more students stared at him the closer he got to his classroom. Was the fact that he was wearing casuals so shocking? It was his first day, so it wasn't like it was his fault. By the way, he still didn't see any other guys on the way. Were they all in class already? He didn't want to get a first impression of a slacker.

It wasn't long before he reached his room. Well, here he was. This was the official point of no return. Once he passed this room, things were going to go either very good or very bad.

The automated door opened and the teacher came to greet him. She was an older woman, about late 40's, who introduced herself by Ms. Blanchard. Nothing about her really stood out apart from her slightly graying hair and glasses. Other than that, she was very non-descript. Her uniform was the sane as Ms Farron's, consisting of all white. It must've been the official school uniform.

"Ah, you must be Mr. Orimura, right?" She asked, to which he gave a nod in return, "Well then, please go in and introduce yourself briefly so we can start our lesson and homeroom session." She instructed.

Ichika nodded and walked into the room nervously, trying to keep his head up. The whispers and noises from the classroom instantly stopped and all pairs of eyes turned to stare at him. That is, all the females did.

Ichika's jaw nearly dropped when he saw his classmates. Not a male in sight as far as he saw, and everyone was giving him stares which ranged from bewilderment, shyness, adoration, or even some contempt. Did...he go to the wrong class? The teachers seemed to know him well enough and even invited him in. Maybe...maybe the other guys were just late?

No, he couldn't afford to think of that now or make a fool of himself here. The first introductions to the class counted for a lot and he couldn't afford to screw this up. With a deep breath, he turned to the class and did his best introduction.

"My name is Ichika Orimura," He bowed his head slightly, swallowing his nervousness, "I'm from Japan, so I don't really know much about this country. I hope you can take care of me for the next three years here." He stood up and gave his best smile, "Please call me Ichika from now on, if possible."

The class was silent after his impromptu introduction. Ichika was worried that he had made a mistake. In truth, he had done much worse than that.

As much of a shock it was for Ichika to see his new classmates were all girls, it was much more of a shock for them to see the new transfer was a boy. Males were rare in Saint Lucia academy, not the least reason being that the IS had changed things around. The number of males in the Academy could be counted by a pair of hands.

How were they supposed to react? It wouldn't be proper for them to start barraging him with questions. After all, one must observe proper etiquette when at all times when it came to meeting new people. After much deliberation, most of them decided to follow with some small clapping.

_'...Why are they clapping? Does this mean I did good?'_

"Ahem, Mr. Orimura," Ms Blanchard coughed, "By conduct, we are to call each other with Mr. or Ms. followed by the family name. It simply isn't proper etiquette for one to call each other by first name so casually."

Ichika scratched the back of his head, "O-Oh, right. Sorry."

"It is quite alright," She nodded in understanding, "You are a new student and a minor infraction shall be ignored today. Be warned however that you must be careful from now on."

"I...I understand." He really didn't. What was so rude about calling each other by name? It was a sign of friendship and understanding to call someone by their given name.

"Very well, please sit next to Mr. Dunoa for now. As you are both a new student and a male one, he shall be your guide in the early days here."

Mr. Dunoa? He followed where her hand was pointing and saw something that gave him immense relief: There was another guy here! In his panicked state earlier he didn't see him, but there was another guy here. Maybe things weren't going to be so awkward now. He was sitting at the back row, which might explain how he missed him earlier.

He half walked/half-ran the distance to the seat and quickly sat down next to the blond haired gentleman.

Charles could be described as the perfect gentleman. He had long blond hair which was tied into a semi-long braid/ponytail and vivid purple eyes. His skin was pale, but not unhealthy, and he had a thin physique. No giant muscles of any kind could be seen on him. His face had its natural boyish charm and, dare he say it, he could call him cute. Coupled with the natural smile on his face, he gave the impression of someone who you could trust your life with without any regrets.

The uniform he wore suited him well. Like the girls, the primary dominant color was black with white trimmings, but the ribbons at the chest were replaced with a tie. He took notice of the fact that the color of it was white; the color of the ribbon probably meant something since the rest of his classmates wore the color white as well.

Ichika sighed and blessed his luck. He wasn't very comfortable with the idea of staying in a class where he was the only guy.

Charles made the first move, "Hello, my name is Charles Dunoa." He offered his left hand in a shake, "I'll be helping you for the first few days here, so please don't hesitate to ask me any questions you may have or if you need help with anything."

Ichika gladly took the offered hand and nodded gratefully, "I'll be in your care Char- Mr. Dunoa." He caught himself, "I'm new here and everything, so please be patient with me."

With the self-introduction over with, the class started its new lesson. Maybe things wouldn't be so bad after all. He had a new friend (somewhat), he didn't make a fool of himself at the start, and, as long as he could keep his grades stable, there would be no problems.

* * *

Okay, things weren't going exactly according to plan. He had been separated from Charles after first period ended and they were given free reign. Since it was the first day of school, they were given time off to prepare themselves for the next week (Today was Saturday).

Charles was supposed to give him a tour of the school after the period ended. Problem being that Charles was dragged away by a group of girls who wanted to "get to know him better". Saint Lucia also had a middle school and Charles apparently became popular ever since he attended last year. Something to do with his father's company or something. Ichika took no mind since he figured every student here was from a noble family or something.

Now he was here, stuck in the benches along the yellow brick road (that sounded familiar) with nowhere to go. He still didn't know where his dorm room was or what happened to his stuff. Charles was probably supposed to be the one to take care of showing him there.

"Ah, so tiring," He groaned, "No one's called or texted me either. What time is it there now, I wonder?" He pulled out his cellphone and stared at it with an expression of forlorn.

"If you keep staring at that cellphone too long it might explode."

"Bwah!" Ichika nearly dropped said cellphone and placed his hand against his rapidly beating heart. Trying to calm himself, he came face to face with another male.

In comparison to Charles, he was slightly taller, with shaggy gray hair with a hint of spikiness at the ends. His eyes were blue, a sure sign of foreign blood. A black cat was perched on his shoulder and it stared at him with narrowed eyes. He found the entire thing extremely unnerving.

"What wrong? I didn't scare you, did I?" His voice had a hint of mirth in it. He took a seat next to Ichika, who scooted away slightly in response. He had a weird feeling about him, and it had nothing to do with the cat perched on his shoulder.

"No, just surprised is all," He answered, "I'll admit: Seeing another guy is a surprise. Charles is the only other guy I've seen so far."

He laughed, "That's not surprising. The number of males at this school is probably a bit...lacking, if I can use that word." He petted the black cat, "Sulpher here says that it's a bad sign, but I think he's just being paranoid."

"Sulpher?" Ichika gave him a raised eyebrow, "Are you talking about...your cat?"

"Oh right, I haven't introduced myself," He turned to face him, "My name is Vayne Aurelius and this is my friend Sulpher," He pointed at the cat, which gave a small meow in response, "You must be the new transfer student, Ichika Orimura."

"Uh, yeah, that's me." Remember Ichika: Never judge a book by its cover. Just because he was looked kinda creepy didn't mean he couldn't be a friend.

"If you don't mind me asking, why did you enter this school?" Vayne suddenly asked, much to Ichika's confusion, "Not many guys choose to go here willingly.

"Why?" This place seemed like a good school, albeit with a disproportionate populace. He couldn't think of anyone who would deny the chance to go to a school like this.

"Oh right, you're a new student. Well, let's make this simple," Vayne leaned in closer, much to Ichika's discomfort, "Don't let the high society talk fool you. This place isn't as kind and welcoming as it seems. You should be careful."

"Wh...what do you mean?" Ichika hesitated to ask.

"You've heard that this place is a school for the elite, right?" Ichika nodded. How could he not? It was plastered in the pamphlet, "This means that many families here send their daughters, or rarely, sons to get an edge over everyone else. The students here have rivalries, and some of them can get...unpleasant."

He gulped, "Unpleasant?"

Vayne was about to say something before a black and white blur zoomed right between them and hid behind the bench they were sitting in. He was about to question what just happened when a group of girls came upon them.

"Have you seen Mr. Graham anywhere? I have something to ask of him." The leader, a french girl with dual drill ponytails on her head, said.

Ichika was about to answer before Vayne cut him off, "Yes, I believe he went to the dormitory's to hide." He interrupted.

The girl looked at him suspiciously before running off, crowd in toe. He waited till they were out of sight before he looked behind the bench.

"It's safe Yuri, you can come out."

Said blur turned out to be a person, a female by the looks of it. Her hair was pure white and ended just above her neckline in short spiky intervals. Like the others he'd met, her skin was pale, though even more so as she looked to be missing pigmentation. Albinism, maybe? Her eyes were yellow in color, which oddly fitted the white hair.

One odd thing, however, was the fact that she wore the male uniform of the school. Maybe she got her usual one dirty.

"Thanks Vayne..." Her voice came out rough, like she had just been coughing, "She's been looking for me the past hour already and I thought I was doomed."

Vayne smiled, "You're welcome. Hey, let me introduce you." He pointed at Ichika and her in quick intervals, "Ichika, Yuri. Yuri, Ichika. It must be a relief for you two to meet another fellow male, huh?"

"Yeah, I guess." Ichika said, "It's nice to meet another gu- Wait, did you say male?"

He must have been hearing things. By first impressions alone, Vayne seemed like a joker at heart and a good liar to boot. He was probably playing a joke on him.

"Yeah, what did you think I was?" Yuri gave him an odd look, "They don't let girls wear the male uniform here. It wouldn't be proper conduct." He said the last part with a hint of sarcasm.

"Or...did you think he was a girl?" Vayne asked with a mischievous smile.

Ichika blanched. She was a guy? But he looked so...

"If you're saying you think I look pretty, I'm going to gouge your eyes out."

...manly! Yeah, a proper role model for males everywhere.

"No! How could I think that!" Ichika denied profusely, "A guy like me can tell when someone's male or not."

Yuri just nodded and took the seat next to Vayne, "So, are you giving him the unofficial school tour, Vayne?" Vayne nodded to the question, "Let me take over then before you start scaring him like you do the other new students."

Ichika couldn't help but notice that neither of them were calling each other by last name or with the Mr. prefix. Was it a sign they were close friends?

"There are already rumors about you, you know?" Yuri said, "Getting paired together with Charles Dunoa is either a blessing or a curse considering how popular he is." Ichika nodded numbly to show he undertsood, "Orimura, you're in a...delicate position right now. I know you've noticed that there aren't a lot of guys here. " Ichika once again nodded, "Counting the 3 of us, you could probably count the number of males in this school with just your two hands."

"That few!"

"Yeah, that few" Yuri gave a sarcastic snort, "Guys here tend to get more attention than the rest, so you better watch yourself. Everything you do will get taken more seriously compared to everywhere else, as you can see by me being chased earlier."

That...didn't sound like good news.

"Can you clarify?"

*Sigh* "Alright, you've read manga before, right?" Ichika said yes, though he was more interested in the fact that Yuri did, "You see those times where the main guy walks into a room and the girls think he's a pervert and beat him up?"

"Yeah, it's a common work of comedy." Ichika answered.

"Yeah well, it's all too real here. Walk into a room at the wrong time, say the wrong thing, or even look at someone suspiciously, and that'll happen to you too."

He couldn't believe what he was hearing. Was he seriously telling him that he could get beat up and injured with no repercussions whatsoever if he said the wrong thing or did something off? That's impossible. There was a bigger chance of him being able to pilot an IS and gaining a harem along the way.

"Hold, what was Vay- Mr. Aurelius talking about when he said unpleasant rivalries?" He suddenly remembered.

"Well, being from noble and well connected families, most of the students here have access to things that can make life very unpleasant over anyone they don't like." Vayne spoke over Yuri, "If you see someone pulling out bodyguards or calling in helicopters just because of a sleight of hand, then you'll find out what the helipad and arena is for."

"Don't worry, no one gets killed in any arguments." Vayne re-assured him, "But that doesn't mean injuries aren't uncommon."

"Th-The school just lets this happen?" Ichika asked.

Yuri gave a sardonic grin, "Nobility here's a title, not a virtue. If you were expecting a school of wise and honorable aristocrats, then you're looking at the wrong place." He shook his head, "What did they expect when they gave hormonal teenagers free reign over their whole school life and access to whatever the family has? A few talks with the family and anything they do is erased from the records like it never happened."

Ichika wanted to ask more questions. What the hell was going on! He came here to study about cooking, get into a good college, and make a life for himself. Now he was being told he was in a practical warzone where the smallest things he did could end up blowing in his face? He suddenly recalled Ms. Farron's words from earlier.

"Welcome to Saint Lucia High School. Don't get yourself killed"

He had assumed it was just a joke on the pink haired teacher's part. He was about to ask for a longer explanation before Vayne's cellphone started ringing and he stood up. "Looks like Hope's in trouble again." Yuri sighed and stood up as well, "We have to go help him out. Be careful, okay Ichika? Stick with Charles. After all, you two are the main characters here."

Ichika could only nod his head dumbly as the two raced off. He was alone again, and he felt significantly worse off than before. There was no going back now and he knew it.

He opened his cellphone again and saw that he had a new message, one from Chifuyu-nee. She asked him how he was doing and if he had a change of heart. With a heavy heart, he texted the words.

"No, I'm fine. Things are going great right now and it's only going to get better."

That was a complete and total lie. He didn't know what was going to happen now, but he couldn't just quit halfway through and go home now. His friends trusted and believed in him, and there was no way he was going to destroy that belief.

"Ah Ichika, there you are!"

Charles ran up to him, taking deep breaths, "I've been looking everywhere for you! Sorry about earlier, it took me a while to excuse myself from them." Charles placed his hands together and apologized.

"Hey, you called me by first name." Stupid! Why did he say that! Charles went through all that trouble to look for him and he was going to complain about that!

" Huh? Oh ah, sorry!" He bowed deeply, "I just thought it would be easier to talk like this when we're alone. If it bothers you I'll-"

"No, no!" Ichika stood up and waved his arms rapidly, "I think that's a great idea, Charles! That's what friends do, right?"

Charles looked stunned for a second before a big smile broke upon his face and he nodded happily. He wasn't expecting him to be so friendly and it was a nice change from his overtly stuffy and formal peers.

"Well, I have to take you to the headmistress' office to get you all of your basic information."

With Charles leading the way, Ichika followed him to the head office. Along the way, some people gave the two of them stares, but he paid it no heed. They decided to make some small talk on the way.

"So Ichika, how has your first day here been so far?" Charles asked out of the blue.

Well, he'd been stared at the whole day, given an impromptu info dump just earlier that basically told him that the school was corrupt, and he might get himself killed by continuing to be friends with Charles. It was certainly a unique experience.

"Oh, it was great! It nothing like I expected it to be..." He did his best to keep his voice neutral.

Charles laughed slightly and turned to face him, "It might be a bit late, but I'll say it anyway." He turned around and held his hands out.

"Welcome to Saint Lucia high school. Let's get along for the next three years."

* * *

**You ever notice that Ichika gets the crap beaten out of him and none of the other students or teachers give too much of a care? I just gave a reason for that here with the exposition. It won't be anything major, but at least it explains why female abuse is ignored so much here.**

**To anybody wondering: Yes, there is a reason Charles and Ichika became fast friends, and why he insisted on calling him by first name. It's a pretty cliche reason, but its a reason.  
**

**Are Charlotte and Charles the same person? That'll be up for debate. I already have a definite plan for Ichika and Charles/Charlotte and I'm re-writing scenes accordingly, but until then it won't be explicit. Whether they're the same or not, that'll be your guess.**

**The next chapter probably won't be as long. I decided to cram all the exposition here to make way for character interactions next chapter.  
**

**Anyway, I'm posting links to what Yuri and Vayne look like. They're not OC's, at least not to me. They came from different mediums. Period below means dot  
**

**Vayne: danbooru(period)donmai(period)us/post/show/1017813/animal_ears-blonde_hair-blue_eyes-cat_ears-grey_ey**

**Yuri: ****danbooru(period)donmai(period)**us/post/show/1209002/1girl-accelerator-albino-chainlink_fence-choker-fe  


**Uniform design for girls: www(period)amiami(period)com/top/detail/detail?gcode=FIG-MOE-6438&page=top  
**

**Up Next: The Soldier and the Bride and Daydream re-writes.  
**


	3. First day troubles

**Disclaimer: I own nothing, not even some of the OC's. They're based on various forms of media. After this chapter, I'll most likely introduce Charlotte. I'll also add more interactions for Ichika/Charles/Charlotte and less on the OC's/Borrowed Character's. **

**Please read the after notes. I have a new preview.  
**

* * *

To call the headmistress' office fancy would be an insult. With the various famous paintings hanging on the walls, furniture that looked like it belonged to a royal palace, and a clear window at the back that gave a view of a beautiful forest, it looked more like the a throne room for a queen than the office of a school head. The lights from the chandelier (He nearly did go slack jaw when he saw that) were bathing the entire area in a golden glow. Despite it being only early morning, the general aura of the area made him feel like curling down and going to sleep.

Fancy wouldn't even begin to describe it.

Ichika stared in awe at the furnishings and decorations, being careful to keep his mouth closed for fear of looking like a slack jawed idiot. He still couldn't believe a school with so much fancy decorations and very impractical (In his honest and humble opinion) designs could exist. The seat looked way too expensive and he could've sworn he felt something akin to velvet when his hand brushed by it earlier. Also, he could've sworn that some of the small statuette's on her desk were made of solid gold. If this is where the school funding went, Ichika was beginning to question the school's future.

At the center of the room, behind the giant oak desk, sat a woman. Were Ichika older, he might have thought of asking her out. Her hair was long and a deep shade of blue along with her eyes (He didn't ask) and her pale skin complemented the green robe like outfit she wore. Personally he was wondering why the principal was wearing something that looked like a cosplay outfit and not a business uniform or something.

She regarded him slowly before speaking, "Mr. Orimura, I presume?" He stood up rigidly and nodded at her strict tone, "Very good. I am the principal of this school, but you may call me Ms. Isolde." He wondered briefly if that was her first name or last name before disregarding it. No point troubling himself over it, "Now, as I understand it you're a transfer student?" Her eyes widened slight as she stared at him.

"Uh, yes!" He nodded rapidly and looked to the side. Charles was standing there and giving him an encouraging smile, though he didn't say anything. It was bad manners to talk into a conversation when you weren't being spoken to, so Charles had to remain silent and watch the two of them.

"There's no need to be nervous," She calmed him, a ghost of a smile playing on her lips, "Scholarship students are so rare nowadays that I hardly believed the report when it came in. Frankly, I'm surprised someone accepted going to the school, especially when their home is so far away. You're probably one of the first scholarship student who's been here for years now, so pardon my surprise."

"O-Oh, there's no need to apologize," Ichika bowed slightly and tried to suppress the redness in his face, "I just thought that it would be a good opportunity to get a good education and experience something new". He smiled at her. _'Not to mention the fact that the next three years of schooling will be paid for by the school' _He thought to himself.

Of course, his excitement over getting to the new school had been dampened somewhat with Vayne and Yuri's talk with him earlier. He definitely needed to keep one his toes around here, especially if half of what they said was true. It wasn't like he could live a life where he got the crap beaten out of him every day for some perceived offense that he may or may not have actually done. He would have to be a masochist or extremely idiotic to consider something like that.

"I see. Well then, I suppose I can't keep you here." She gestured her hand slightly to Charles, "As you know, Mr. Dunoa has been assigned to help you on your first days here. If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to ask him. That is, if Mr. Dunoa has no problems with that."

Charles took that as his cue to speak, "Not at all, Ms. Isolde," He smiled and did a graceful, gentlemanly bow, "I'd be happy to show Ich- Mr. Orimura around. I'm sure we'll be fast friends in no time." Was it getting hot in here, or was it just Ichika's face reddening again? ...Nah, it was just hot.

"Very well, I won't keep you here any-"

"Um, I actually have a question for you first, Ms. Isolde." Ichika blurted out without thinking

She raised an eyebrow slightly at his abruptness but chose to let it slide, "Alright, is there anything that's troubling you, Mr. Orimura?"

Troubling him? Oh, maybe he should start with the fact that none of them have explained anything about the school apart from that it was famous (Or prestigious, as the pamphlet keeps saying). Or maybe the fact that he wasn't told that the school is just barely co-ed and the amount of guys could (roughly be counted on hand). Better yet, how about the fact that the entire school is supposedly some kind of battlefield playground for anybody who had enough money to afford it. Long story short, there was a lot troubling him at this point. He was half tempted to call his older sister and beg for him to get a ticket back. But, one of Ichika's main points was his stubbornness, and he really wanted to see what would happen.

He knew he couldn't ask her any of that, though. What was she gonna say? "Yes, our school isn't as perfect as it was advertised, here's the money for your trip back"? She was the principal of the school, she obviously wasn't going to say anything that would diminish the school's reputation.

He needed to ask something quick, "Uh, you said there aren't many scholarship students, right? Does that mean they're rarely given out?" He scrounged from the back of his head. Truthfully, he was also curious about it, especially when he saw the school's...imbalanced population.

"No, not really." Ms. Isolde replied casually, causing Ichika to nearly faceplant, "We send at least a couple of dozen scholarship offers every year in hopes of attracting talent to this school. One of the school motto's cultivating talent to read to a brighter future."

_'Really? Cause it seemed like the school motto was "We are the best school eva!' repeat x 1000.' _Once again, he kept that thought to himself. Mouthing off to the principal on the first day of school really wasn't going to earn him any brownie points. Still, the pamphlet could've been more helpful in that regard.

"So why are scholarship students so rare then?" This time it was Charles who asked, much to Ichika's surprise. He also had a look of curiosity on his face that mirrored Ichika's.

"Well, it's simply because rare that anyone accepts the invitation," She sighed and placed both hands under her head, "They give reasons such as already applying to school, being too far away for it to be feasible or not actually being interested in the scholarship they were offered. Just because they were good at it didn't mean they were interested in training their skills there, apparently."

Ichika could understand that. Though he received a cooking scholarship and a chance to study for free for the next three years, he never really thought of being a chef or going to the food business even up to now. His plan after middle school was actually to drop out and start working immediately in order to help repay his sister. It was only her threatening to shove him into a box and enrolling him without his consent that made him change his mind.

He didn't even think his cooking was that good. Most of what he made were common dishes that could be done by anyone with a cookbook and the only specialty cuisine he did was either during home- ec class or during special events like Christmas. Since he didn't have a girlfriend, he spent that day with the Gotanda's along with Houki and/or Rin.

Chifuyu was always too busy with her job to come back.

Okay, going down a bad road again. He needed to stop going emo and thinking about the past so much. He was here now and he was going to make the best of it, both for his and everybody else's sake.

"Well then, I assume that's all the questions you have?" Ichika nodded along with Charles, "Good. Mr. Dunoa has been informed of where your room is and all of your luggage has already been placed there along with anything you need," She gave him a once over and chuckled slightly, "I suggest you change into your uniform before you go out and explore the school."

Both of them gave their thanks and walked out of the room not so slowly. Both of them sighed in relief once they managed to leave the room and the intimidating aura . Even Charles, who was used to dealing with that kind of thing, found going into the Headmistress' office a test of his strength and will every time. Ichika's presence and the fact that he wasn't the one being questioned diminished that somewhat.

"That was nerve-wracking, huh, Ichika?" Charles asked, reverting back to first name basis, "I thought we were in trouble there for a second," Charles gestured into the hallway to their right and started walking, Ichika following right behind him.

Ichika laughed slightly and walked next to Charles shoulder to shoulder, "Really? I thought she was really nice, all things considered. She was just giving me an orientation to the school and how everything works. Nothing to be scared about." That said, he really did feel nervous when she was talking to him. He didn't know why, he just had a sixth sense when it came to these kinds of things.

"That's exactly it." Ichika gave him a questioning look, "Normally she's no-nonsense type of person and doesn't really answer questions about anything. I nearly made a run for it when I saw her smiling. There are rumors that she smiles only when something bad is going to happen to the person she's talking to." Charles said, half-joking.

Ichika suddenly felt like he was going to get sick. Good thing he never really believed in rumors like that. He stopped believing when rumors spread of him getting a harem. Him with a harem? Please, there was a higher chance of Houki suddenly telling him she loved him.

They went through a few more hallways and a few sets of stairs before they managed to reach outside again. Ichika took a deep breath and relished in the fresh air. Back in Odaiba, there was rarely any tree's or greenery to be found for miles. The air here felt different; more...calming (if that was the word for it).

"The dorms is that building over there," Charles pointed over the semi-large building Ichika had passed by earlier, "According to the floor plans they gave me, our rooms are actually close by to one another. I'll take you there and then go to my own. I'll give you a couple of hours to yourself and then I'll give you a tour of the school. Does that sound good?"

Ichika nodded, "Sounds good to me. But how come you're giving me such a long break? It shouldn't take me that long to put on my uniform and get my stuff out." Ichika asked.

"W-Well, you must be tired from the jet lag, right?"

"Nope." Ichika answered with a huge smile.

"Uh..." Okay, he needed to find a good reason so he won't suspect anything, "I have to call my dad and do some stuff for now," He sincerely hoped he wouldn't ask her to elaborate on' stuff', "Don't go into my room, alright? It's bad manners." He warned.

"Sure..." Ichika agreed, though he had a slight suspicion he was hiding something. He didn't really let it bother him, though. Dan acted the same way a year ago and he found out it was because he was hiding a hentai collection from his sister. Ran burned it all when Ichika found it, so he swore to himself not to pry any more when his friends hid something. It wasn't like it was anything illegal or anything.

Oh, before I forget," Charles reached into his pocket and pulled out another pamphlet," Here's a small map of the dorm and a list of the rules. The punishment for breaking rules here can be...severe," He looked away slightly as he said that, "I think you better read up on that before you go exploring. Don't want to get in trouble on the first day now, do you?"

Reading? Aww, he hated reading. He threw away an IS instruction manual once because he thought it was an extra phonebook. Chifuyu made him run laps around the entire neighborhood after that. Not to mention the fact that the pamphlet looked as thick as a small novel. No way he was going to spend his entire day reading that.

Time to get out of reading, "Come on, Charles, can't you just give me the short version of the rules?" He begged.

"No way," Charles shook his head and laughed slightly, "It won't kill you to read a few pages worth of rules," Okay, maybe he was exaggerating on the pages worth thing, but Ichika's jaw drop was too priceless to pass up, "Besides, all of us read it, so why should you get special treatment?" He jokingly asked.

Okay, he really needed to up the ante now, "Please~ I'll be your best friend." Ichika begged again, "I'll do you a single favor and I won't back out if you just give me the short version."

Charles thought about it. It was a good deal, and it wasn't like it would take a major effort on his part to explain the rules. Getting a favor from him to do anything was also a pretty good incentive, "Alright, here's the main rule: The guys stay on the 2nd floor and girls stay on the 3rd floor. Girls can go into the guys dorms, but guys can't go into the girls dorms," Charles held up his hands when Ichika looked like he was going to protest, "It's an old rule that's been around as long as this school. Don't complain about it or you might look like a pervert."

Actually, he was going to ask why all of the students were staring at the two of them as they passed. Was it his clothing or something? He wasn't wearing the uniform, but he didn't think it would make them stare at the two of them that much. Somewhere at the back of his head, a voice was telling him that it wasn't because of his clothes but something more. He promptly crushed that thought and focused on moving forward.

"Alright, what are the other rules then?"

"What other rules?" Charles looked at him questioningly, "That's the only rule I can think of that might be new to you. All the others are fairly standard like don't cause trouble or throw trash away properly. Do you really need me to run those by you?"

"Huh, wait..." He picked up the rule pamphlet and waved it in front of Charles, "Basic rules only? This thing looks bigger than some of my school reports. How is this only basic rules?"

Charles stared at him. And stared. And stared. He began to worry for his friend's mind when he suddenly started laughing, "Pfft...hahahaha!" Charles tried to suppress his laughter, but he only managed to soften them into giggles, "Ichika, only the first page is listed with the rules. All of the other pages are pictures of the dorm's and the features it has."

"No way..." He opened the pamphlet and scanned through the pages quickly. Charles was right, only the first page had anything resembling a list of rules, and even then it only took half the page. The rest of the pages were filled with pictures, diagrams, and long winded descriptions on the facilities. A part of him felt stupid for taking things at face value, but another part of him felt like he should've seen this coming after the whole school pamphlet debacle.

"Oh, and don't forget that you owe me a favor for explaining that to you." Ichika's head drooped even lower when he heard Charles' reminder, "A promise is a promise, right, Ichika?" Ugh, he was smiling like a true gentleman when he said that. He couldn't find it in his heart to say no.

"Yes, yes. I promise to do you a favor and I won't refuse it no matter how embarrassing, demeaning, or weird it might be." He recited in a monotone.

"Great!" Well, at least he made his friend smile. Besides, it wasn't like he was going to make him do anything too bad...right?

Oh well, no time to worry about that now. They'd arrived at the front of the dorm and he needed a break from all that staring he and Charles had been getting.

* * *

Ichika crashed onto the bed, waving a small goodbye to Charles as he heard the door close. The feeling of being in a soft bed again was so relaxing that he was tempted to sleep and forget about everything. Still, he had promised Charles that he would meet him in the next couple of hours, so he shook himself awake and tried to stay focused.

With the way the school seemed to spend their funding on decorations, Ichika wasn't particularly surprised that his room was pretty expensive looking as well. Thankfully, it looks like they actually managed to spend their money with his scholarship in mind rather than on gold decor. The room itself was fairly standard: A single sized bed in the center of the room with a big ornamental wooden closet next to it. A bathroom off to the side with a toilet, sink, and shower/bathtub combo. A wide HD Television set a few feet in front of the TV atop an oak table/cabinet. And lastly (and most importantly) a kitchen that took up the leftmost side of the room with the latest utensils and a fridge stocked to the brim with food. There was a note on top of the fridge that said the food was for practicing purposes and that it wouldn't cost him anything to use and re-stock.

"Killer school or not, they really know how to spoil their students." He mumbled idly to himself. He stayed down on the bed for a few more seconds before getting up and stretching, "Guess I should put on the uniform for now and see if I can cook something up. Give Charles a small thank you gift for showing me around."

He opened the wardrobe and took out the neatly folded uniform. There were a few pairs of the same uniform folded neatly on the right side of the closet and his casual clothes, which had been unpacked from his bag, He couldn't help but admire the organization of it all. Back home, he was the one who had to fix both his and Chifuyu's laundry. Felt nice to be able to relax for once.

Wasting no more time, he stripped off his shirt and jeans and quickly put on the black and white uniform. The first thing he noticed was that it felt amazing. The fabric was soft and easy to the touch and it was fit in all the right places. The second thing was that it was extremely easy to move around in. It's like he was wearing nothing at all...okay, bad thoughts again. Last was the design eerily reminded him of his old school uniform. He felt nostalgic for a moment before he shook his head to shake the memories out again. He really needed to stop living in the past.

"Right, time to make something simple..." He bounced over to the fridge and opened it wide. One look inside, however, and it was obvious that there was nothing he could cook. It wasn't that the food was spoiled or anything. Quite the opposite, the food looked very delicious and mouth watering.

The problem was that he had no idea what the heck they were.

Various herbs, cheeses, and seasoned meats filled every nook and cranny of the interior. Where were the noodles? The shrimp? or even the sweet and sour pork? He couldn't find anything in there that he could identify at a glance. Even the condiment containers near the sink barely had anything he recognized. Other than salt and pepper, there were various other hard to pronounce spices littering the place. Even reading them out loud gave him a headache.

Ichika sighed, "Well, so much for that idea..." He lamented to himself as he made his way back to the bed. Looks like there was nothing he could do but wait till Charles came to pick him up. At least he had some TV to watch till then.

***Tok* *Tok* *Tok***

Okay, maybe not. He heard three rapid knocks on his door and immediately made his way there, _'Charles must be early,'_ He thought to himself, _'Maybe I can ask him if I can go shopping later. I need to get some new ingredients if I want to start practicing. Wouldn't want to waste all that expensive food on the fridge on failed tests.'_

With that thought in mind, he opened the door to greet his friend.

"Ah, thanks for opening the door! I promise I won't be long!"

What greeted him at the other side of the door wasn't his friend but someone else. He didn't get a chance to get a good look at him (He was pretty sure it was a him since the voice sounded deep enough) before he made his way onto his bed and curled up there. Ichika didn't have to wait long for an explanation before another student barged into his room.

"Excuse me, have you seen- Ah, there you are!" The other student, a female this time, went right past him and tried to drag the other one from his bed, "Come on, Hope, you promised to help me with my movie project last night! Don't tell me you're going to back away now?"

"You-You didn't say anything about having to do the scene in just my underwear!" He shook his arms frantically and tried to loosen her grip, "And don't call me by first name Ms. Farron, it's against school rules."

"Well duh, of course you have to do the scene in your underwear," She rolled her eyes as if it was Hope who was being unreasonable, " It's a shower scene, so wearing underwear is already pushing it. No one's going to see anything apart from some shots of your chest, so I don't know what you're so worried about." She pulled harder and moved him a few inches off the bed, "And don't call me that! We've been friends for years now so I hardly think some rule saying we have to call each other by last name should really matter."

Ichika just stared at the couple as they continued to trash around on the bed. Though they were moving around a lot, he finally managed to get a good look at their features.

The guy was young, obviously younger than the both of them, and had pale skin coupled with even paler silver hair, which looked messy and slightly spiky. He couldn't really see well, but his eyes appeared to be green judging by the small glimpses he could make out. What he could see, on the other hand, was the look of panic on his face.

The girl, on the other hand, looked slightly familiar to him. Her long pink hair was fashioned into a side ponytail and her eyes were a familiar shade of blue. Her face, in contrast to Hope's, looked between a mix of irritation and amusement.

Both of them were wearing the school's uniform, so it was pretty safe for him to assume that the both of them were students. Still, he was expecting student's to act more...professional around the school environment. At least that's the impression he got from Charles.

"Ms. Farron-" She gave him a glare, "Serah, you know why I can't do that scene!" He looked to the side and blushed, "Someone I know might see it and I'll never be able to live it down. Besides, you said the movie was going to be safe and clean."

"Don't be silly," She clicked her tough and gave a small snort of amusement, "Nobody you know **might** see it, they **will** see it. Big sis is going to be the first to watch it when it comes out!" Despite the mean choice of words, Ichika could tell she meant no harm with it.

Unfortunately, Hope didn't seem to share her sentiments.

"Then I'm definitely not going to do it!" He trashed around harder and even resorted to trying to kick her off the bed. She just giggled in response and re-doubled her efforts to try and drag him out.

Neither of them looked like they were going to stop anytime soon, so it fell on Ichika to defuse their argument. Neither of them seemed to realize they were also being a bother, what with messing up his bed and all.

Hold on, didn't he hear this before?

**"Looks like Hope's in trouble again. We have to go help him out."**

That's what Vayne had told him before he left. Could this be the same person? He certainly looked like he was in trouble, and the frantic knocking from earlier surely sounded like a plea for help to him. Dan knocked like that before handing him his Hentai collection to hide from Ran.

Unfortunately, Chifuyu found them and he was forced to burn them afterwards. Dan wasn't happy the next day.

Okay, he needed to help him, "Um, excuse me..." They didn't pay attention to him and continued their arguing. Ichika took a deep breath and shouted, "Hey! Pay attention!"

The two of them stopped their back and forth and looked at him, surprise etched on their faces. It was as if it was the first time they realized they weren't alone in the room. Ichika felt a twinge of annoyance at that.

"Sorry Ms...Farron (Sounded familiar), if that's your name." He made his way to the bed and pulled Hope off the bed, ignoring the surprised squeak he gave, "Hope here promised to help me fix up my stuff today since I'm a new student. Isn't that right, Hope?" He gave him a look that said 'just play along if you want to get away!'.

"What!?" She gave Hope a glare and he hid behind Ichika in response, "Is this true, Hope? Didn't you make a promise to help me today!?"

"Um..." He looked between Ichika and Serah nervously. On one hand Serah was his friend and Ichika was someone he hadn't even introduced himself to yet. On the other hand, Ichika was trying to help him no questions asked and Serah was trying to make him strip down to his underwear so she could film it. He had to think long and hard-

"Yup, that's why I went here!" He chuckled slightly and tried to keep his heart rate from spiking, "I didn't go here to hide from you or anything, I was just helping...this guy with his luggage."

Serah looked suspiciously between the two of them. She'd been with Hope nearly all day yesterday trying to get ready for school and not once did he mention about other plans to help some new student enter the school. Hope also wasn't the most sociable guy, so the chances of him helping out some random student he didn't know was extremely unlikely. Still, there was no reason for the newbie to lie for Hope's sake if he didn't him.

"Well...alright..." She looked down and sighed before giving hope the pointer finger, "But we're going to start filming tomorrow morning, no excuses!" There was no way he had anything to do tom.

Serah left the room with a slight humph. Both of them sweatdropped and shivered slightly when they heard the door slam shut. It took a couple of minutes before they were sure they weren't being watched. They promptly fell back on the bed and heaved huge sighs of relief.

"That was tiring..." Ichika groaned at the sight of his messed up bed. The pillows were tossed onto the floor and the blanket was in a messy state, being tangled . He'll have to fix that before Charles arrived.

Hope looked at Ichika gratefully. He hadn't expected anyone to help him at all. He'd texted Vayne and Yuri earlier, but he hadn't seen them anywhere the entire time. He was honestly getting desperate and just barged into the closest room he could find, "Um, thanks for helping me..." He offered his hand, which Ichika accepted with a smile, "My name's Hope, Hope Estheim. Nice to meet you...?" He paused at the end.

"Oh, my name's Ichika Orimura." He let go of Hope's hand and gave him a once over. He could definitely confirm that Hope was younger than him. The younger boy was about a head shorter than him and he had to crane his head down to talk to him face to face "And it wasn't a problem at all. You know, you should report to the office if that girl's bothering you." He suggested.

"Bullying? O-Oh no, she wasn't bullying me!" His face reddened and he shook both his hands quickly, "Serah's my childhood friend, so we've known each other for a while. She just wanted me to do something for her and I accepted without thinking about it. It's my fault."

Ichika found that logic slightly off-kilter, but chose not to comment on it. He knew the pains of having a childhood friend who made you do things you didn't exactly agree to. He still had some of those bruises from Houki from their last sparring session. She apparently thought going all out was alright since he'd be leaving for 3 or so years.

He had more immediate things to worry about right now. Since Hope had been waving around his arms so much, the red necktie around his neck (an optional accessory Ichika chose not to wear) and the buttons on his shirt, which were already loosed to begin with because of his previous exertion, came loose, exposing his thin chest and stomach for all to see. Hope looked down, confused for a second, before looking back up to Ichika with begging look and a small blush on his face. Even if Ichika was a guy, he had to admit that his face felt somewhat hot when he saw the look Hope gave him. First Charles and now him, he was starting to get worried.

"Here, let me fix that for you," He stood up and leaned down, grabbing the necktie with both hands, "Lucky for you my older sister taught me how to fix ties when I was younger. Now just hold still and-"

The sound of the door opening and footsteps interrupted him before he could finish, "Ichika, I finished talking with my dad early, so we can go...start...the..."

Charles froze at the doorway, eyes wide in surprise and face reddening quickly. Ichika began to wonder why till he realized something: His actions were simple and innocent enough. But to Charles, who had just walked in, he saw Ichika leaning down on the smaller boy while his uniform was unbuttoned and his tie was in Ichika's hands. Even he could see how bad the situation looked, especially to another guy.

"W-Wait, this isn't what it looks like!" He quickly let go of Hope's necktie and made an X mark with both hands, "I was just helping him fix necktie, nothing bad was happening, I swea-waaaah!" He tried to step forward, but he seemed to miscalculate the pants length and accidentally slipped backwards on the fabric. He automatically turned his body around and made sure his front would absorb the impact, just like Chifuyu and Houki taught him.

He had to remember not to follow everything they taught him.

"Ichika...you're heavy..."

Charles small blush turned bright crimson as he saw the scene in front of him. Both Ichika and Hope were on the bed, the latter under the former with a blood red face. Whether it was due to pressure or embarrassment, he didn't know. To his credit, Ichika just looked confused, a very good sign that he hadn't done it on purpose. This missed Charles' eyes, however, as he made a quick bow and closed his eyes.

"I'm-I'm very sorry for interrupting you two," He took a deep breath and made to step out of the room, "Ichika, I'll be back in another half hour. I hope that's enough time for the two of you to conclude your...business. I'd like the get the tour started as soon as possible." He stepped out of the room quickly, steam puffing out of his ears.

"No, wait!" Ichika stood up heard the door slam a second time that day. He looked up and gave a groan before collapsing headfirst into the bed, making sure to stay as far away from Hope as possible. Could this day get any worse?

"Hey Hope, are you done helping him unpack ye- Wha...What the heck!? Is this the reason why you agreed to help him!?" He heard rapid footsteps go near the bed, but he didn't have the energy to get up and look, "If you can do that, then why the heck couldn't you do that scene we were talking about? Come on, we're going to shoot it right now!"

"S-Serah, wait! This isn't what it looks like!"

Okay, it could always get worse. He really should stop asking that question. At least rumors weren't about to spre- No, he wasn't going to finish that sentence. That would just be tempting fate.

His first day was going awesomely (sarcasm).

* * *

**Okay, end of chapter. Read and review please. **

**Next Update: This means war! or The Soldier and the Bride. Daydreams is in a bit of a rut right now:( Oh, and I'll start on the Ichika/Chifuyu story AU story when I can. In the mean time, here's a couple of (very)small teasers.  
**

* * *

Here she was sitting at the center of the class, trying to ignore the stares the other student's were giving her. What's the big deal, she thought. She was a girl just like the rest of them. Nothing special about her. Her looks were average: Long black hair tied into a ponytail, dark brown eyes that looked red at certain lighting, and pretty good body proportions. She could pilot the IS, but so could any other double X chromosome human being. She was completely average in every sense of the word.

Really.

Right now it was self introductions. The busty green haired teacher at front was instructing (more like begging, she thought to herself) the students to introduce themselves to the entire class. Though she said teacher, the person at front looked anything but. The yellow dress she wore certainly didn't look like any certified teacher wear she'd ever seen before. The way her chest bounced around with every slight movement she made also made her angry for some reason.

It didn't take long till it was her turn to introduce herself. Sighing, she stood up and introduced herself quickly, "My name is Chifuyu Orimura. I'm just your average girl with nothing special about me, so...yeah. I hope we get along in the coming years." She did a short bow and sat back into her seat.

Silence.

Total fucking silence was the classes response to her short introduction. Chifuyu smiled inwardly. Normally people would be surprised or embarrassed when they received that sort of reaction, but she was happy. Now no one was going to go up to her and start asking her stupid questions about her brother again.

"Is that all you have to say Chifu-chan?" Her smile quickly disappeared and it's place were rapidly reddening cheeks as she recognized the familiar voice, "I thought you'd be more friendly on your first day of school, but I guess I was wrong." There was only one person. One person who had the gall to call her that nickname and make her cheeks redden from anger (Not embarrassment!).

There, leaning on the doorway, was a young man of 24. His black hair was short and ended in spiky waves and his brown eyes showed a hint of mirth. In contrast to the other adult (She still had her doubts on that), he wore a black business suit with a white long sleeved dress shirt underneath it. She couldn't help but twitch when she saw that the black suit was unbuttoned and his dress shirt was tucked in. Leave it to him to come in looking like an idiot.

"O-Onii-chan!" She tried to say, but her voice was drowned out by the sound of the other girls in the classes wild yells. She'd heard it all before so she chose to block out all their noise. It was probably something about how hot he was or something...not that she thought he was hot or anything. She was his sister and that would've been weird.

Ichika ignored the screaming of the students and went over to her seat. She looked up at him suspiciously before he gave her a smile and started ruffling her hair, much to everyone's jealousy. She could've told him to stop, but the feeling of it sent her nerves spiraling down too much for her too care.

"Chifu-chan, you need to be more friendly to your classmates," He sighed, "How do you expect to make friends when you're being so friendly. You don't have to be so shy, you know? None of them know that you-"

"Ahfbeihf!" She smashed both hands on her desk and stood up, glaring at him. The blush on her face pretty much destroyed any fear he might have gotten, though, "That's not related to this class at all! You told me you were a teacher, so start acting like it," She sat back down and crossed her arms, though Ichika didn't miss the small pout she had on her face, "And stop calling me Chifu-chan! We're not at home anymore so you have to act like a teacher while we're here and call me Orimura-san or something. It's embarrassing when it's not just the two of us." She didn't say the last sentence, but Ichika could tell that's what she wanted to say.

The other students (and the lone teacher) looked at the two student's with a mix of confusion and, in some cases, jealousy. This was the only male IS pilot? The champion of the First Mondo Grosso and would be champion of the second one? The pilot who was known all over the world as a genius when it came to the IS? And, most infamously, Shinonono Tabane's rumored lover?

"Right, we'll talk later, Chifu-chan," He ignored Chifuyu's angry stare and went to the front of the class, a large grin on his face. Chifuyu felt her blood boil when she saw Maya not so discreetly move next to him.

"My name's Ichika Orimura, though some of you seem to know that already. I'll be teaching you for the next year and I just want everyone to know that we're all friends here. You guys can call me Orimura-sensei if you want, but I'm fine with being called by first name's and no honorifics if that's how you guys want it. Over the past year we'll be seeing a lot of each other, so I want everyone to be friends with one another, me and Maya-sensei included."

He was an idiot. This was the thought that pushed through Chifuyu's mind as she once again blocked out the screams of her classmates at his introduction. Still, a part of her felt relieved at seeing her brother act so natural. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad.

"That said, I hope you all become friends with Chifu-chan there at the center. She might seem a bit cold, but that's only because she's shy. Do your best, Chifu-chan!"

...Scratch that, she was going to kill him once class was over.

* * *

"Hey Chifu-chan, how did you know I liked purple?"

Chifuyu looked up from the television and saw him walk into the room carrying the laundry bin. She did her best to ignore the fact that he was bare-chested and only wore a pair of black boxers, "What are you talking about, Onii-chan?"

"Well..." Ichika sighed and pulled out a a pair of purple panties from the bin. By the looks of things, it was an extremely risque piece of lingerie made for an adult. Chifuyu stared blankly at it before her mind processed what exactly her brother was holding, "I mean, I'm not going to tell you how to dress or anything, but I didn't think you were growing up so fast. Pretty soon you'll be getting a boyfriend and leav- Eh? Chifu-chan, why are you balling up your hand into a fist?"

"YOU IDIOOOOOOOOOOOTTTT!"

* * *

**How was it? Please read and comment.**


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